An ex-Marine in Southern California jailed in 2012 for smuggling a chrome-plated Iraqi AK-47 into the US and saw his conviction overturned last month has been released.

Joel Cleve Miller, 42, won an appeal that said he should have been allowed to present testimony supporting his claim he'd been framed by another Marine.

Miller claims fellow soldier Christopher Bruce was having an affair with his former wife Melissa Miller and, when Miller threatened to reveal the adultery, Bruce concocted a scheme to blackmail him.

Gaudy gun: Prosecutors at Joel Cleve Miller's trial got the former Marine a two-year jail sentence after claiming he smuggled this chrome-plated AK47 they say belonged to Saddam Hussein's royal guard out of Iraq in 2005

Freed: Now the 42-year-old Hemmet, California man has been released following an appeals court decision that he should have been allowed to present evidence that he'd been framed

During Miller's four day trial, prosecutors claimed the Marine smuggled the illegal machine gun out of Iraq in 2005 after a two-year tour in the country.

Miller testified that the gun actually belonged to Bruce, a married fellow Marine.

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Miller said that Bruce and his ex-wife were involved and in the military such adultery is considered a crime.

But when called to testify, both Melissa Miller and Bruce declined to appear in court, citing their Fifth Amendment right not to incriminate themselves, according to the Press-Enterprise.

'The district court abused its discretion by precluding Miller from calling two witnesses to testify about their alleged extramarital affair,' the appeals court's opinion read.

Troubled history? Miller was dishonorably discharged in 2011 for reasons unrelated to the machine gun. He also may have been part of the controversial scout sniper unit that posed in front of a flag that looked similar to the Nazi SS flag

Hot potato: Miller (pictured) claimed his ex-wife was having an affair with a fellow Marine. Miller claimed the gun was actually smuggled by former fellow soldier Christopher Bruce

'Their testimony about the affair would have corroborated Miller’s testimony and bolstered his defense that he was framed in retaliation for threatening to report the alleged affair to military authorities.'

As of Tuesday, there was no word from prosecutors as to whether they would be seeking a retrial.

During Miller's original trial, the prosecution claimed that not only was the gun Miller's but that he'd bragged about owning it and even took pictures of himself holding it.

According to Miller, it was just one gun among others that Bruce had given to him to hold during some marital issues he was having.

The firearm was seized by the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives after a 2007 call Melissa Miller made to the Naval Criminal Investigative Service to report her impending divorce from the Marine.

She told them she wanted the guns taken away from her home and children.

Miller was discharged from the Marines in 2011 for 'bad conduct' unrelated to the firearm. The Marine Corps accused him of making thousands in fraudulent travel claims to a medical facility.

He also may have been part of a controversial scout sniper unit that posed in front of a flag that looked similar to the Nazi SS flag